Vegetarians are so much nicer than vegans aren’t they?

Why are vegans so difficult, especially when other people go out of their way to cater to their dietary choices?

When someone has made a lot of effort to accommodate the vegan, why are so many vegans unhappy and won’t just get on with their meal and leave others to theirs? Are they just zealots who want everyone to change and be like them?

Are they so intolerant of other people’s choices that they can’t let things rest and have to make a big deal about things? Have their joined a vegan mafia and become so radicalised that they want everyone to think and feel how they do?

Aren’t they just selfish, wanting it all to be about them?

Why can’t they just leave people to their own choices?

Most vegetarians an those on a plant-based diet seem perfectly at ease around others without having to convert them....

......Vegans, on the other hand just can’t keep quiet about what other people are doing.

I was vegetarian for thirty years before I looked into what happens to cows and chickens for the production of dairy and eggs. Suddenly I was no longer comfortable being around people eating any animal products and then it got worse, with a strong visceral reaction to any situation where I encountered animal use.

Did I become an intolerant, opinionated individual wanting the world to follow or did something else happen to me?

If you are a vegan reading this, you probably understand. Vegans are typically reduced to tears at the arrival of the family roast dinner and called selfish and difficult because they spoil the dinner for everyone else.

All are these vegans, including myself, want to scream out, “It’s not about me!”

So, if it’s not about the vegan’s choices or desire to control others, what is the problem?

The Vegan’s Dilemma

It’s only possible to understand what seems on the surface an unreasonable response, if we look at what it really means to be vegan.

Veganism is not a lifestyle choice of what you eat but….

….. philosophical underpinning to a person’s life to not use or exploit animals. It infuses every aspect of the vegan’s life because of the ubiquitous nature of animal abuse in society.

Having now been a vegan for over 15 years, I conclude that it’s virtually impossible NOT to abuse animals in one’s everyday life-stye choices, unless one acts specifically to NOT abuse them.

That’s a bold statement.

? Something as seemingly innocent as having a cup of coffee with dairy or a slice of cheese, hides heinous suffering as mother cows are forced to be pregnant to produce milk, their babies callously torn from them so humans can consume their milk.

? A new lipstick if not plastered ‘cruelty free’ messages, has involved painful animal testing experiments to ensure pharmaceutical companies are not sued for causing a reaction to the product.

I could list a hundred ways in which animals are ritually used in the products of products and services for us humans.

I also know that the majority of people would be horrified if they looked closer into the use of animals in society and the unimaginable suffering imposed on non-human animals.

Our job as vegans is not to ‘blame and shame’ the non-vegan but develop the knowledge and the social and communication skills to engage meaningfully with non-vegans to share how we have all been duped into colluding with extreme animal abuse in our everyday choices.

It’s our job once we know about the ubiquitous abuse of animals to show others that I’S IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO ABUSE ANIMALS, unless we look further and choose differently and that means becoming vegan.

In the same way that we can’t be ‘half pregnant’, we must show non-vegans that we can’t NOT abuse animals UNLESS we are vegan – and that starts with one of our biggest habits – what we eat!

Maybe this article will reach someone who currently thinks vegetarians are so much nicer than vegans and they say, "Oh now I get it and I am going to dare to be unpopular because I see how my wilful ignorance colludes the cruelty that is hidden in plain sight on my dinner plate".